1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the management of communications and more particularly to a system and associated method of operation for receiving multimedia communications, for organizing such communications within structures established solely for organizing the communications, notifying users upon receipt of particular types of communications and the distribution of such communications.
2. Related Art
As the communication age has established itself and expanded, the need to expeditiously and economically receive, store and disseminate communications has increased. Electronic mail (email) has facilitated electronic communication between individuals and organizations. Facsimile data transmission has allowed written communications to be transmitted in electronic format and reconstructed into a hard copy format upon a delivery. Further, files containing information may be transmitted and received electronically. Finally, voice communications may be packaged, stored and transmitted over a wired or wireless link to destination where they may be stored for review at a later time. Together, communications containing multiple media types are referred to as multimedia communications.
However, difficulties exist with respect to the ordered dissemination of multimedia communications. With some media of communication, such as email for example, the electronic email communications may be automatically directed to multiple users. Further, in various other systems, voice mail communications and facsimile documents may be multicast to a large number of recipients. Thus, in operation, communication using any of these mediums may be automatically sent to a plurality of destinations.
This ease in directing a single communication to multiple destinations, however, has created significant overhead. For example, in organizations where email has become prevalent, users typically send copies of email to numerous users even though one or more of the recipients has little or no reason to receive the email. Further, facsimiles (faxes) are often transmitted to multiple locations with little or no knowledge as to the value that such fax will provide to the recipient. Thus, even though communications may now be easily disseminated, the overhead created and time lost in review of the communications often outweigh any realized gains.
Additional difficulties arise due to the multiple formats in which communications may be transmitted. For example, faxes, email messages, digitized voice transmissions and electronic files typically require separate interfaces for their creation, transmission and receipt. Separate interfaces are expensive to acquire and difficult for individuals to learn and use. Tools used to direct the transmission of communications are typically non-interactive and difficult operate.
Moreover, for multiple communication types, no universally accepted definition for the successful receipt of a communications exists. Therefore, available systems, even though providing support for multiple types of communications, provide no indication to a sender that a transmitted communication has been received by an intended recipient or recipients. For example, upon sending a file to a recipient's directory, a sender typically must confirm the delivery of the file via verbal communication with the recipient. Faxes may sit for hours or days at a receiving fax machine until they are forwarded via human intervention to the recipient. In any group communication environment, the importance of notification to a recipient often dictates the fashion in which communications are transmitted. Information that would more efficiently be transmitted via a first medium may be transmitted via a second, less desirable medium solely due to notification requirements.
Many types of communications have no indicia of source, topic, purpose time frame and other information that allows a recipient to categorize the communication. Typically, the recipient cannot determine the relative importance of the communication without fully evaluating the communication and therefore typically wastes time in reviewing messages unimportant to him or her. Further, recipients often times review messages only to determine that events referenced within the communication have passed and the communication is no longer relevant to the recipient. The lack of topic and purpose generally precludes the recipient from efficiently retaining and storing the communication for further use.
Still further limitations exist with current communication management tools. Available tools typically do not provide the capability to archive communications in an organized fashion for future use. The tools typically do not provide for the selective dissemination of communications within organizations. Further, dissemination of communications is typically performed without reference to the security of the transmission of such documents.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a system and associated method of operation for receiving, organizing and disseminating multimedia communications in a logical, expeditious, and economical fashion.